http://www.pbase.com/larsjeppesen/worlds_end check the photos with LX in the filename - all from a a recent trip to Sri Lanka. After much research and help from fellow Pbase members I choose this camera as my travel companion, it's perfect, 10megapix allows you to crop a bit if needed and the much discussed noise is not a problem if you know how to avoid it. I wanted the Leica D-Lux3 version but decided to save my money and bought a wonderful full size ultralight carbon fiber travel tripod from Silk.

Nov. 19, 2006:
About 8 months ago I chose to buy the Lumix DMC-LX2 because it was an unusual digital point-and-shoot: 8 mp, everything could be manual (exposure and focusing), RAW format, 16/9 possible proportions among a choice of 3 formats, 28 mm (35 mm film camera equivalent) wide angle, extraordinary Leica lens (no vignetting at all at 28 mm!).
After several weeks of use I realized that the absence of view-finder, and as a consequence composing on the screen changed and somewhat improved the esthetics of my photography. I was focusing more on the overall picture, less on details. The only flaw was the ridiculously prominent noise at any ISO over 100.
When the LX2 came out this fall with 10 Mb and improved noise reduction I could not wait...
All my expectations were met.
It is a precious, well-designed, effective, and esthetic image-making tool.
Bruno Chalifour

I love this new compact, Raw, manuel, widescreen, anti shake, wideangel camera! For us who don´t want to carry around big cameras and yet have the possibility take control. Easy, fun and advanced.
Here is few samples from an hour in a forrest a sunday afternoon.

The LX2s unique 16:9 format coupled with a wide-angle lens inspires me to compose photos in a more dynamic manner. The new screen is beautiful, giving you much better feedback as you compose photos. JPEG Image quality is very good. Noise reduction smears low contrast details on the occasional photo, in exactly the same areas that the LX2s predecessor, the LX1, exhibits visible noise. In order to see noise or the effects of noise reduction, you need examine prints from up close. White balance, colour rendition and contrast have all been improved. Really amazing results are possible if you convert RAW files. Just be aware that each RAW file is 20MB in size.

This is great upgrade from LX1! Finally, it have features like flash compensation, Flash WB, detailed WB tuning, high ISO and longer battery time. Unfortunately, the noise reduction in JPEG is too high (even if set to LOW).

At all ISO levels you could see lost details (it's really extreme in comparison to RAW) and the things getting extremely bad from ISO 400 and above. It would be great if we could turn the noise reduction completely OFF. And this is calling for all semi-pro and pro users..sign this Panasonic LX2/FZ50 Firmware update petition..

And an Xpan only gives 24x36mm negatives when in 'normal' mode, though it claims to be a mid-format camera. ;) I guess another way of putting this - this is a wide format 10M camera, but you can crop the image to give it a more 'usual' ratio.

Guest

30-Aug-2006 08:20

This camera is not a 10 megapixels camera, only if you make your photos at 16:9 format, panoramic only. If you make normal photos the size is 7 megapixels. I don´t like. Be careful with this!!!